Biotech Firm Tularik Grabs Biggest Slice of Bay Area Pie

John McLaughlin, new president of Tularik, Inc. of South SF. He was formerly with Genentech. Tularik is a pharmaceutical company which develops gene therapies.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL MALONEY

John McLaughlin, new president of Tularik, Inc. of South SF. He was formerly with Genentech. Tularik is a pharmaceutical company which develops gene therapies.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL MALONEY

Photo: MICHAEL MALONEY

Photo: MICHAEL MALONEY

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John McLaughlin, new president of Tularik, Inc. of South SF. He was formerly with Genentech. Tularik is a pharmaceutical company which develops gene therapies.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL MALONEY

John McLaughlin, new president of Tularik, Inc. of South SF. He was formerly with Genentech. Tularik is a pharmaceutical company which develops gene therapies.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL MALONEY

Photo: MICHAEL MALONEY

Biotech Firm Tularik Grabs Biggest Slice of Bay Area Pie

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Investors may be shunning many biotech companies, but not Tularik Inc.

The South San Francisco firm -- which is developing drugs that regulate genes to fight disease -- received the biggest chunk of venture capital during the past quarter of any Bay Area company.

A giant Swiss investment firm, Pharma Vision 2000 AG, invested $55 million into the pioneering 6-year-old Tularik. Two years ago, Pharma Vision committed $32.8 million to Tularik -- which remains Pharma Vision's first and only stake in a private company.

Pharma Vision has health care holdings of $5 billion, including major stakes in Roche, Glaxo Wellcome and Hoechst.

Tularik doesn't have any blockbuster drugs on the market yet. But it has some promising prospects.

Early cell and animal testing indicate that the substance, dubbed T138067, might prevent cell division, which could be useful in treating an array of cancers. It does this by binding to a cell component called tubulin and keeping it from forming intercellular highways across which chromosomes move in cell division.

"Most pharmaceutical companies try to regulate diseases from outside the cell," said John McLaughlin, who joined Tularik as president in December after 10 years at neighboring Genentech Inc. "Our point of intervention is inside the cell. Most diseases are caused by genes being on or off when they shouldn't be."

Tularik has other Genentech connections. Its chairman is Genentech co- founder Robert Swanson, and its chief executive is David Goeddel, one of Genentech's top scientists in its early years.

Tularik's basic approach is to identify strands of DNA involved in major diseases, figure out how the culprit genes function and then find compounds to regulate the genes' activity. To make gene therapy even more elegant, Tularik is working on "small molecule" drugs that can be swallowed in pill form rather than injected.

Besides its cancer-fighting compound, the company is working with Merck & Co. on potential gene therapies to combat HIV. It also is researching treatments of obesity and bacterial diseases.